Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Dated For Xbox One And Xbox 360

Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners will receive Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare early next year. Publisher EA has announced a February release date for the multiplayer shooter.

The Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions will be available on February 18th in North America. The European and UK launches will follow on the 20th and 21st. A PC version is also in development but its release date wasn't mentioned today. PopCap previously indicated that the game could come to other platforms eventually.

Garden Warfare is a spin-off to the popular tower defense series. Players become plants or zombies and fight it out in team-based battles. Each side has several characters to choose from, each with a unique sets of abilities. For example, a zombie player could become an Engineer and build turrets. Or they could be an All-Star and pelt enemies with footballs.

PopCap Games used the Frostbite 3 Engine to build Garden Warfare. It's the same engine that DICE built for Battlefield 4. The game retains the cartoonish art style of the main PvZ games but now the characters and environments are rendered in full 3D. The player controls their character from a third-person perspective rather than an isometric view.

"Gamers across the world have fallen in love with the Plants vs. Zombies characters and now they’ll get to see them in an entirely new light,” said Brian Lindley, producer for Garden Warfare. "Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare give the series’ fans and shooter players a fun, new experience that they’ll both enjoy as they blast, chomp and laugh their way through co-op and head-to-head online action."

The game ships with three modes on Xbox 360. In Gardens and Graveyards, the plants team must defend their garden from a zombie onslaught. Team Vanquish is the team deathmatch equivalent. Gamers looking for a co-op experience can play Garden Ops and fight off waves of zombies with up to three friends.

The Xbox One version comes with everything on the Xbox 360 as well as two more features. Two Xbox One players can fight off zombies together on the same console with split-screen co-op. Boss Mode, similar to Battlefield 4's Commander mode, allows a player to help their teammates with intel, items and artillery strikes. Boss Mode is available in any match type and can be accessed through Kinect or a SmartGlass device.